Breaking the Habit
by peroxidepest17
Summary: Naoya and Izumi decide to do something about their lovers’ unhealthy habits.


**Title:** Breaking the Habit  
**Author:** Celeste  
**Universe:** Love Mode  
**Theme/Topic:** Prism's LATE gift fic. --;;  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Character/Pairing/s:** AoexNaoya, TakamiyaxIzumi  
**Warnings/Spoilers:** Um… probably some spoilers for minor things through Vol 7 of the manga? O.o I'm guessing here, of course.  
**Word Count: **1,194  
**Time:** One hour, twenty-two minutes! THAT WAS HARD.  
**Summary:** Naoya and Izumi decide to do something about their lovers' unhealthy habits.  
**Dedication:** Prism- I'm so sorry. --;;  
**A/N: **I owe this for Christmas. Christmas! I know, I suck. But it's hard when all I want to write is Bleach and a lot of the people I owe gift fic to aren't into Bleach. Blaah. And I've had a horrible record with gift fics for this holiday season, really. Skye's involved a character (and consequently a pairing) she doesn't know and Mel's was a failure in domesticity. Haha hopefully this one is slightly better than those two given the delay. Either way, this officially clears me out for this year, though…gulp Birthdays approach. I'm in trouble. --;;  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine, though I wish constantly.  
**Distribution:** Just lemme know.

* * *

It might have been because of the mandatory Health Class each of them had to take in their respective schools, the result of which involved both Naoya and Izumi coming to a rare moment of complete agreement. 

"That lung was disgusting," Izumi muttered, shuddering at the memory of the black hunk of flesh his school nurse had brought in on one of her more inspired anti-smoking spiels.

"Mmm," Naoya agreed, brow furrowed as he tried to remember—on average—how many cigarettes Aoe had a day. He usually lost count somewhere after ten, because it seemed that it was around that number when Aoe got his cravings for other things, and honestly, Naoya couldn't be expected to remember much of anything when Reiji got like that.

"Oi, are you listening to me?" Izumi asked, shutting his binder with a snap. "Those two idiots are gonna die."

Naoya cringed at the way Izumi said it, and turned to reprimand the other boy for being so casual about declaring something like that. He paused when he saw the troubled look in his friend's eye.

Izumi would never admit it, probably, but he was just as worried about Takamiya as Naoya was about Aoe.

"What can we do about it?" he asked instead.

Izumi looked determined. "Easy. We get 'em to stop."

Naoya couldn't quite hide his dubious expression on the easy declaration. "I don't think…"

"We can do it," Izumi insisted. "I mean, how hard could it be, right?"

The other boy couldn't help it that the phrase "famous last words" was on his tongue the moment he heard his friend's rhetorical question, though he wanted very much to believe it was as easy as Izumi was saying.

"C'mon, Naoya, you care about the big idi…er, Aoe, right?"

"Of course."

"Then we gotta at least try, right?"

Naoya sighed, feeling at once helpless against Izumi's frightening enthusiasm and the knowledge that getting Aoe to give up something as integral to his daily life as smoking was not going to be easy. It almost felt impossible.

"Well?" Izumi pushed.

Naoya took a deep breath. "Alright."

-----

The next day, when Aoe came home, he immediately knew something was up.

"What's with that look on your face?" he asked as he removed his jacket, cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth.

Naoya offered a small smile from the couch, where he'd been reading. "Welcome back."

Reiji looked back skeptically. "Tadaima," he offered anyway. "So? Let's hear it."

The younger man looked sheepish, trying not to stare at the cigarette in his lover's mouth. "It's… nothing," he responded. "Let's have dinner, hmm?"

Aoe sighed, becoming vaguely impatient. "I need to tell Takamiya to keep his brat away from you," he muttered.

Naoya frowned. "What does Izumi have to do with anything?"

Aoe made a vague gesture with one hand while loosening his tie with the other. "I just know it has something to do with that loudmouthed idiot. You two studied together yesterday, didn't you?"

"For college entrance exams," Naoya assured him, turning a bit defensive. "He has nothing to do with what's wrong with me."

Pause.

Oops.

Aoe crossed his arms. "Naoya…"

The younger man looked sheepish. "He isn't _completely_ involved anyway," he corrected, blushing slightly. He'd totally walked into that one.

"Well?" Aoe asked, taking his cigarette out of his mouth. Naoya followed its downward path with his eyes, stopping when it came to a halt at Reiji's side.

Aoe, ever vigilant, caught the movement, the staring. "Oh? Am I wrong then?" he started, smiling. "Is there something I can do for you, Naoya?"

Naoya knew what that tone meant—several hours of not being able to get a word out—and quickly, he averted his eyes, answering with a, "you can stop smoking!"

Reiji blinked.

Well.

He hadn't been expecting that.

"Quit smoking?"

Naoya chanced a look up. "Yes?"

Indulgently, Aoe walked over to the end table beside the couch and snubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray there. "Okay."

The younger boy made a face. "I meant…well…forever."

Aoe arched a brow. "Really now?" Looking thoughtful, the club owner stepped around the end table to join Naoya on the couch. Looking very calm, he caught the younger man's eyes. "What brought this on, I wonder…" he murmured, calmly draping his arm around Naoya's shoulders.

The teen sighed. "It's just… I've been taking this class," he admitted, unconsciously leaning into his lover's side. "And I think…"

"What, that it smells bad?" Aoe started, leaning forward so that he could murmur right against the skin on Naoya's neck. He inhaled deeply. "True I don't smell quite as delicious as you, but it's never hindered anything before."

The younger man shivered without meaning to. "It's not that."

"Does it taste bad then?" Reiji persisted, nosing behind his lover's ear.

Naoya felt his face go hot. "No, it's not…"

"Hmmm…then what's the problem?" Reiji questioned distractedly, hand drifting towards the buttons on the younger man's shirt.

Naoya squirmed. "Aoe…I just…" his sentence trailed off into a startled "Nnngh!" when the older man's hand found it's way under the cloth of his uniform.

"Then there's nothing wrong, is there?"

It was difficult, especially when Aoe had managed to get to this point in his schemes, but Naoya managed to wriggle backwards, away from that large, warm palm and those teasing lips. "Aoe-san, please!" he protested, voice coming out a bit higher pitched than he would have liked. He paused, took a deep breath. "I just… I just want you to be healthy, is all," he admitted, cheeks flushed as he looked at his lover, wounded.

Aoe paused at that, studied the younger man carefully. "You're really serious about this, aren't you?"

Naoya nodded, looking down at his lap.

Reiji sighed, running a hand through his hair. "You really want this?"

Naoya nodded again.

Aoe muttered something unintelligible and pulled Naoya back against him, sounding moody but vaguely resigned. "Fine then. But you'll have to find another vice that will keep me suitably entertained in the meantime, hmmm?" he asked, wrapping his arms around the teen.

Naoya supposed he could deal with that. Burying his nose into the crook of Aoe's neck and inhaling deeply, he managed a relieved, "Okay….ack!"

Staring up in surprise as he suddenly found himself on his back, Naoya blinked up at Reiji, who was beginning to undo the buttons of his own shirt. "I suppose this is better than some stupid patch though," he admitted, eyes fixed on the younger man's.

Shivering under Aoe's hands, Naoya's last thought before he couldn't think anymore was whether Izumi was having as hard a time with this whole thing as he was.

Probably.

-----

Izumi looked thoughtfully across the table at Takamiya over breakfast, the older man reading the paper and smoking his morning cigarette as they sat together in the quiet morning hours, before Izumi had to be off to school.

"Ne…Takamiya," he started, conversationally.

"Hmmm?"

"I think I would like kissing you more if you didn't taste like smoke all the time."

Takamiya stared at him.

And then tossed his cigarettes and his lighter out the window.

**END**


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